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Open CTI Developer Guide

Get Started with Open CTI
Why Your UI Matters
Open CTI Method Parity
Other Voice Solutions
Customize Functionality
Open CTI Support Policy
Call Center Definition Files
Working with Open CTI
Methods for Lightning Experience
Methods for Salesforce Classic
Other Resources
PDF

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Get Started with Open CTI

Build and integrate third-party computer-telephony integration (CTI) systems with Salesforce Call Center using a browser-based JavaScript API.
Available in: Salesforce Classic (not available in all orgs) and Lightning Experience
Available in: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

To display CTI functionality in Salesforce, Open CTI uses browsers as clients. With Open CTI, you can make calls from a softphone directly in Salesforce without installing CTI adapters on your machines. After you develop an Open CTI implementation, you can integrate it with Salesforce using Salesforce Call Center.

Here’s how Open CTI connects to your telephony system.

Open CTI architecture graphic.

The way you implement Open CTI depends on your org’s user interface. There are separate Open CTI APIs for Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. You can’t swap the two Open CTI APIs in custom JavaScript code because they behave and function differently. Make sure that you think about where you want to implement your CTI system before you begin developing.

Note

With Open CTI, you can:
  • Build CTI systems that integrate with Salesforce without the use of CTI adapters.
  • Create customizable softphones (call-control tools) that function as fully integrated parts of Salesforce and the Salesforce console.
  • Provide users with CTI systems that are browser and platform agnostic, for example, CTI for Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Mozilla® Firefox®, Apple® Safari®, or Google Chrome™ on Mac, Linux, or Windows machines.

To implement Open CTI, it helps if you have a basic familiarity with: CTI, JavaScript, Visualforce, web services, software development, the Salesforce console, and the Salesforce Call Center.

Keep in mind that Open CTI is only available for use with JavaScript pages. The examples in this guide are in JavaScript. You can use Open CTI in JavaScript to embed API calls and processes.